It’s been a while since we’ve wrote. The last few months our minds were too occupied with immigration into The Netherlands, finding a home, looking for jobs, digesting what happened, enjoying time again with family and friends – as possible – and cyclocrossing in between cows and windmills. Happy to share more about our return in a later blog when time is ready. For now back to the last blog.

Where were we? Melbourne, 14th of March. Our F1 weekend was corona-ruined and we (Wouter, Steffi and myself) left Melbourne to explore the Great Ocean Road.

The Great Ocean Road is one of the worlds most scenic coastal drives. We start our road trip adventure in Barwon Heads. A coastal town and a beautiful camp spot on the West Bank of the Barwon river. It’s great to be back at the ocean. Out of town, fresh salty air and away from corona buzz and crowds. Also pretty cold and windy! Once the sun is down, we wind up inside Kempie (our campervan), where the three of us spontaneously having a German sing along party.

Eating wurst and enjoying a trip down the memory lane with the Die Neue Deutsche Welle and eventually any German song that has ever made it into the Dutch charts. Nena, Falco, Markus, Modern Talking, Kraftwerk, Tokio Hotel, Matthias Reim, Modo, Die Toten Hosen, Tic Tac Toe, Rammstein and off course Scooter all echo loud and clear through our cosy van. 😂 🤣 Isn’t it brilliant? Steffi flew half the globe to end up singing German songs in Kempie with two Dutchies who master broken German!

The next day we awake refreshed and are ready to conquer the Great Ocean Road. Kempie though is dead. Nothing. Nada. Niente…. a flat battery. Inflating Steffi’s mattress with Kempie is handy, unless you keep the key all night long in the ignition. Luckily the campsite keeper helps us to bring Kempie back to life. Great Ocean Road here we come!

The drive takes us along cliff tops, wild beaches and green forest with incredible look-outs as a result. Add some road trip music and it can’t get much better than that. At Kennett River we stop to meet some friends who play hide-and-seek. It takes some time, but eventually we spot a few wild koala’s on our drive up a mountain.

We end our day at an amazing camp spot at Cumberland River. Wow, it can get better!  No connection, no WiFi  = corona silence! We look over a calm river next to a cliff, Family Kangaroo and Mr. wild koala are our neighbours and we waste our time building a fire and eating marshmallows. Fantastic!

The next day we are treated with more stunning lookouts and we explore Cape Otway Lighthouse. This lighthouse is the oldest surviving lighthouse (1848) on mainland Australia and sits 90 meters above the ocean of the Bass Strait. For many who travelled from Europe, Americas and Asia by ship in the 19th century, this lighthouse was their first sight of land. And now we are here, looking out over an endless ocean. Sigh.

Next, we enjoy some sea breeze at Johanna Beach, just another stunning beach. And we call it a day at Princetown at a quiet campsite overlooking a river. Unfortunately the corona news is back in our minds. It’s no longer about how to keep the spirit up and making the best of it, but about what is wise… 🤯 Travel restriction after lock down are announced in this crazy world. It all changes so fast. Will Steffi get home? What about us? What shall we do?

Our world trip as we know it is over… Last weekend our plan to cross the Pacific to North America early April has been cancelled. Australia seems like a safe place to be and we have a little home on wheels that can keep us going for little while longer. However autumn is coming 🥶 and the state Victoria just declared the emergency situation…. What does that mean? We probably should go up North asap before state borders are closing…  Pfffft. 🤯☹️

The next day we explore the Twelve Apostels. A must-see high light in Australia and only 12km away from us. We go for it and it’s true, this is serious amazing stuff. Pics say more than words. Due to corona there are hardly any other tourists but unfortunately, it’s difficult to be fully in the moment at this amazing coastline. We did a pretty good job so far, had a great time together the past days, but now the world is changing so fast. We can’t ignore it anymore, it’s on top of our minds. If we like it or not.

The only guy who made us completely forget about corona that day was a Giant Huntsman Spider who decided to live in Kempie. 😱 This guy is deadly as many drivers get involved in a car accident a few seconds after spotting. These hairy creatures are the worlds largest spider by leg-span which can reach up to 30cm and no matter how cool you are, if this guy suddenly walks over your windscreen you will scream! For sure. I think we never got out of the van that fast! We screamed again the next day when he showed himself on the windscreen once more. Serious, I don’t want to know how close that spider was to us when we were asleep???

Anyway, that evening emotions and thoughts are a rollercoaster. Steffi focused on getting home. Her best shot is jumping on her flight via Bangkok in a few days and hoping Thailand won’t go into lock down. Our best shot is going up North before state borders are closing down and hoping this crazy situation will end before our visa ends.

We listen to the song “it’s the end of the world as we know it”. We know…not really supportive but it delivered the sentiment…

Check-out our Quick Story Video of our Great Ocean roadtrip, including corona emotions on what to do… 🤯😱 but… I think we can say we absolutely succeeded in turning all around. We had a great time together and explored some incredible amazing places!!! 👌🏻😎 Last but not least: thanks Steffi, it was great having you over Down Under 🙃🤗 An experience the three of us will never forget! For sure.